Sunday, September 27, 2009

Why Are Animals Blue?

By Melissa Stewart

Publisher: Enslow

ISBN-13: 978-0-7660-3251-4

FROM THE BACK COVER: “Discover a rainbow of animals. Animals come in all colors of the rainbow. Learn the fascinating reasons why animals are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple in the RAINBOW OF ANIMALS easy-to-read Science books. Find out about animals with blue faces, blue feet, and blue tongues in this fascinating book. Kids will be mesmerized by the quality color photos and intriguing facts in this easy-to-read title.”

A Rainbow of Animals Habitat Walk (Naturalist)

Take students to a local habitat and ask them to search for a “Rainbow of Animals.” Have them draw pictures of the animals they see. Back in the class, determine whether or not students were able to find a complete “Rainbow of Animals.

Animal Movement (Bodily Kinesthetic)

Lead the students through the various actions of the animals in the book: swimming, hopping, flying, dancing, snapping and flicking. Ask students to correlate each movement with the appropriate animal.

Attraction, Camouflage, or Warning Graph (Logical-Mathematical)

Stewart teaches students that animals are blue for three different reasons: 1) To blend in, 2) To attract a mate; and, 3) To scare away predators. As a class, go through each animal in the book and determine if the animal uses blue to attract a mate, scare away a predator, or to hide. Make a bar graph of the results. Are there more animals in one category? Why?

Guess Who? (Verbal-Linguistic)

Brainstorm a list of animals from the book. Ask a student to pick an animal from the book. Then, the other students can ask questions to try and guess which animal the student chose. Students should ask questions about habitat, how the animal uses its color for its benefit, and what animals are the prey and predator of the chosen animal.

Wax Resist Watercolors (Visual-Spatial)

The blue shark’s color helps it stay hidden from its predators in the water. Have students draw a picture of a blue shark using crayon. Then ask students to use blue watercolors and paint over their drawing. Since wax resist the watercolors, students do not need to worry about painting over their work.

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About Me

I am an author, curriculum guide consultant, and a teacher. Each week this blog features a Multiple Intelligences unit for the primary or intermediate elementary classroom based on a recently published children's book. Author interviews include information about the writing process and the Six Traits of Writing. Book submissions may be sent to 227 Mountain Road, Princeton, MA 01541. I cannot include every title, and I cannot return books. Preference will be given to books that correlate strongly with the national education standards. Only traditionally published books will be considered. If you have further questions, or would like to hire me as a curriculum guide consultant, please contact me at kate_tomATverizonDOTnet.